


Falling in love; and other extreme sports

by sadgaymermaids



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Vanya Hargreeves, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Protective Number Five | The Boy, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Vanya's powers weren't suppressed, vanya has powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:54:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26123830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadgaymermaids/pseuds/sadgaymermaids
Summary: What would have happened if Vanya's powers hadn't been suppressed all her life and she had grown up training and going on missions with her siblings?
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves, Vanya Hargreeves & The Hargreeves
Comments: 49
Kudos: 293





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for a while of what would have happened if Vanya had grown up with her powers like the others. I couldn't find any fics like that so now I'm writing my own.

The Umbrella Academy sat squished into Sir Reginal Hargreeves’ car. He sat up front lecturing them all on their mission but Vanya was only half listening. It was the same as most missions, there were bad guys and they were supposed to go and kill them. It got rather tedious after a while. The car pulled up in front of a bank, there were media vans around the entrance and the police had the building surrounded. The group got out of the car and followed Reginald to the police tape. An officer ran out to meet them.  
“Hello sir, thank you for coming! We believe there are 8 men inside with guns that are threatening hostages.” He said, wringing his hands in front of him anxiously.  
“Very good, children. Do the right thing.” Reginald ordered them but they all heard the underlying threat. If they made the wrong move he would make them pay for it.

The children made their way to the building as a group.  
“That’s a stupid plan, it would get us all killed.” Diego was saying.  
“Then why am I Number One, I make the plans, you listen to me.” Luther bit back.  
“I would make a much better Number One,” Diego grumbled.  
“Will all of you shut up. I can’t hear anything over your bickering.” Vanya snapped at them.  
She took a deep breath and let her hearing open up, she could hear the news anchors behind her but ignored them focusing on inside the building. She heard sniffling hostages, by her count maybe a couple dozen.  
“Maybe a couple dozen hostages, in the big main room.” She said, still focused on the building.  
She listened for the attackers, she heard three sets of boots in the main room with the hostages, three more wandering around the building doing a perimeter than a final two in the vault with the manager by the sounds.  
“Three in the main room, three making perimeter, two with a manger type in the vault.” She said snapping back into herself. She could see her teammates taking in the information and making a plan.  
“Okay Seven, Five you take out the perimeter, Four, Six, Three you guys take out the guys in the main room and get the hostages out, Two you’re with me in the vault. Let’s go.” Luther said stepping up to his position as Number One.  
Everyone nodded and scattered to take their positions.

Five teleported Vanya up to the roof so the two could enter from the top and surprise their opponents. They waited for everyone to get into position, Ben, Klaus and Allison through the front doors and Diego and Luther at the back. 

At Luther’s signal, they made their way inside. Vanya followed Five as they descended into the building opening her ears again she closed her eyes and listened. There was a guy about 200 meters down the hall going away from them. Vanya whispered this to Five and the two of them turned silently down the corner. They were the two best stealth members of the group, able to silently move through the shadows. 

The two crept quietly closer to the man, Vanya was faintly aware of the sound of her siblings fighting at other places in the building. Once they were 10 feet out Five teleported up to the man, grabbing the gun from his hands. He used the butt of it to hit the man in the stomach. The man doubled over clutching his abdomen. Five took this opportunity to hit the man over the head, he took one of the small knives they all had and stabbed the dude in the neck. They were taught to kill quickly and efficiently and no one better than Five. Vanya was slightly in awe as the man slumped to the ground bleeding out, Five was almost beautiful in his systematic takedown of the man twice his size. Five looked up at her and grinned whipping blood off his cheek.

Vanya opened up her hearing again and found the second man a few hallways down. She led Five down the hallway, the two perfectly in sync. They crept through the shadows quickly until they made it to the hallway with the second man.  
“My turn,” Vanya whispered before darting toward him.

She ran down the hallway at the back of the man, at the last moment she jumped landing on his back. The man thrashed trying to buck her off but she slammed her elbow into his pulse point sending them both tumbling to the ground. He rolled to grab her but she was faster spinning out of his grasp and kicking away his gun. She blocked a few half-assed punches from him before coming up behind him again. She braced her arms and grabbed his head and jaw in her hands. With a quick twist and crunch, she had snapped his neck. She looked back at Five.  
“Much cleaner,” She grinned at him and he rolled his eyes but was smiling back at her.

For the fourth time, she let her ears tune into the sounds of the building around her.  
“Shit, he’s on the other side of the building.” She muttered.  
“Well, luckily you have someone who can get you there.” Five said extending his hand to her.  
She took his hand and in a flash of blue light, the two of them appeared in an identical-looking hallway with a large man coming towards them. The man raised his gun and the two of them jumped out of the way as he started shooting at them. Five jumped to behind him and managed to get a few good hits before the man turned to him. Vanya took this distraction to take out the tuning fork she kept in her uniform. She hit it against the wall letting the sound grow and reverberate until it was filling the hallway. The man turned back to her, shooting and she had to duck and roll to the other side of the hallway. She let the energy from the noise build in her until she released it towards the man, watching as Five got one final hit and the man crumpled to the ground. 

Five walked over to her and offered her a hand up. She gratefully pulled herself up but kept her hand in his reassuring one.  
“Did he hit you?” He asked, his eyes betraying his concern for her.  
“I don’t think so.”  
“Good, let’s go find the others.”

The two walked in toward the main central room of the building. Vanya could hear the Horror finishing off the last of the men in the room and the hostages running outside. By the time Five and Vanya entered Ben had got the eldritch being that lived inside him under control and was covered in minimal blood which was nice. 

“Are they all taken care of?” Allison asked seeing their arrival.  
“Yes, ma’am.” Five said with a wink towards Vanya.  
“Great, we’re just waiting on One and Two.”  
They didn’t have to wait long, the two came traipsing in 30 seconds later, bickering as always.  
“Is it done?” Luther asked seeing them all there. They all nodded affirmative. “Let’s go.”  
They turned towards the doors. Luther led the way, flanked by Allison and Diego, Klaus, Ben, Vanya and Five all huddled behind them. They all squared their shoulders then, with one final breath, pushed through the doors. 

They were swarmed with reporters and cameras asking questions and fans who had heard they were here and flocked to the place. Vanya shrunk into Five’s side a bit, this was her least favourite part of the job. She was already developing a headache and the flashing lights and screaming people did not help it. He tapped his fingers against hers a couple times, wanting to take her hand but unable. They stopped at the steps and stood still for the photographers. Luther dutifully answered a few questions from reporters before they made their way back towards their father’s car. 

As they pushed through fans were screaming and throwing things at them. A couple tried to grab at Diego as he walked by but he quickly dodged them. They were used to their fans by now, they had been “public figures” since 10 years old. Vanya still thought it was weird, a lot of them were grown adults obsessed with teenagers. As they had grown older more people became interested in their love lives, even reporters asking questions about it. She knew some diehard fans had a countdown until all of them turned 18 which she didn’t like to think about too often. She sometimes wondered what would happen when they inevitably left the house of Sir Reginal Hargreeves. 

They managed to make it to their father’s car and all pile in. Their father was seated in the front seat waiting for them. Luther turned dutifully and informed of what happened. Vanya sunk into the car between Five and Ben. The adrenaline was wearing off and her headache was getting worse. She would have to ask Grace to check her out once they got home. They rode home in silence after Luther’s briefing. 

The buildings of New York flew by outside the car window and Vanya imagined what it would be like to be just a normal person. Not training every day, not constantly putting herself in harm’s way, being out from under the thumb of her father. What it would be like to see the world, not just from behind a car window. She thinks it sounds nice, maybe one day she’ll get there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings have an interview on a late-night show.

The thing about being teenage superheroes, that were once children superheroes, it that the world gets sort of obsessed with you. The Umbrella Academy had amassed a following of fans over the years and had got the attention of the media. This resulted in a lot of interviews and publicity things that Five found quite boring. They had been on every talk show in the country, and a few outside of it as well, they had even been on Ellen. Predictably once a month or so they would have an interview on some show. 

They always followed the same format, there would be a few general questions about their missions, a couple of personal ones at Luther or Allison being the face of the Academy and then Luther or Diego would show off their powers. Usually numbers 4-7 would sit far away from the host, maybe answer a simple question, then were left alone. It was a lot of sitting around, which Five was not good at. 

Five and Vanya had developed a system a while ago for this. They had learnt morse code and would tap the other on the leg and have conversations that way. They used it mostly at the table during meals but it also became useful during boring interviews. 

When they were not being asked questions, which was most of the interview really, they would have their own silent conversation. They would make comments about what they thought of their siblings’ answers or how they would answer the questions, sometimes they wouldn’t even talk about the interview but something completely different. 

Tonight they were being interviewed by some late-night talk show, Five didn’t know which and didn’t care enough to find out. They were sitting in the hair and makeup room in their interview uniforms, people running around brushing powders on their faces. Five sighed and looked across at Vanya, she looked equally bored as him. 

Once they were deemed ready for the camera they were herded into another room. They sat on uncomfortable leather couches, backs straight like they’d been trained. Luther Allison and Diego sat on one couch, Klaus, Vanya, Ben and Five on the adjacent one. Luther and Allison were having a whispered conversation, Diego spinning a knife across his knuckles, Ben and Klaus were engaged in an intense game of red hands, that left Five and Vanya. 

Vanya leaned slightly into Five with a slight sigh. I was her week for individual training with dad and it always left them exhausted. He leaned back into her wanting to wrap his arms around her but they had a public image to uphold. They were not normal children, they couldn’t show affection, couldn’t be anything other than the perfect soldier. Their father would twist anything they loved and used it against them. That was the reason Five kept repeating to himself. Why he couldn’t love Vanya, couldn’t even think about loving her.

They were called by a producer to take their seats on the set. The man who was doing their interview was sat behind a desk. There was a couch set up for the interview children, Luther, Allison, Klaus, the ones that always got asked the questions. There were tall chairs behind them for the quiet siblings. Five sat with Vanya on his one side and Ben on his other. Once they were settled in their seats the man behind the camera counted down. And theme the little red light came on and they were live.

“Hello and welcome back!” The announcer said, smiling into the camera. “Tonight we have some very special guests. You might know them as the 7 superhero children saving the day, The Umbrella Academy.” The camera panned to them and Five put on his best TV smile. He was exhausted already.  
“Now you guys are really cool, you are a lot cooler than most adults.”  
Five’s focus was pulled to Vanya tapping on his leg.   
Can he be any more condescending?  
“You have a lot of fans, how does it feel to be adored across the world?” The host asked.  
“It’s great to know that there are people that like us but that’s not why we do it. We do it because it’s the right thing to do.” Luther gave the generic response they had been taught.  
This time it was Five tapping on Vanya’s knee.  
God Luther could you be more scripted.  
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her biting back a grin.  
“Now being two girls in a house full of boys must get annoying at times.” The host turned his smile to Vanya and Allison.  
“I guess but we have our own girl nights,” Allison said, smiling her perfect smile. It was true there would be nights that Vanya would be dragged off to Allison’s room, sometimes accompanied by Klaus, to gossip and braid each other's hair or something.   
“Can you say don’t have any men in your life? I’ve heard rumours of you having a boyfriend.” He turned completely to Vanya at this point.  
Vanya’s snarky comment stilled against his leg, instead her hand was tightly gripped in the material of his pants.   
“I don’t know where you got those rumours but I would check your sources if I were you.” She was smiling a little too wide now, her tone icy as she turned to face the host directly. Five was half scared that she would bring her wrath on the guy, not that he would stop her.   
“I also don’t know why you're asking about the love life of a 16-year-old girl.”  
Five gently unclasped her hand from his pant leg, instead interlocking her fingers with his.   
“I’ve heard that the Umbrella Academy might be going international soon. How do you guys feel about travelling outside of the country?” The host quickly moved on.

Vanya remained on edge the rest of the interview even with Five soothing calming circles into her hand. When they went to commercial break all the siblings turned to her concerned.   
“Are you okay?” Allison asked her.  
“Yeah, I just was caught off guard is all.”  
“Where do you think the rumour came from?” Luther asked.  
“I don’t know, probably one of our crazy fans.” She sighed.

At this point, a producer came cutting off their conversation. They were herded to a different part of the set with a target set up for Diego to throw his knives at. Part of being a wonder kid was every time anybody met them they wanted to see their powers. 

The public knew most of Luther’s and Diego’s but everyone else was kept under tight wraps. Allison for potential backlash at the very easy way she could manipulate people. Vanya and Ben were considered dangerous and their powers could bring a bad reputation to the Academy. Five was simply not interested in having to present his powers anytime they had a public appearance. Also, it was much easier to get the drop on criminals when they didn’t know how powerful the Academy was. 

Diego stood at the front of the group, ready to show off his powers. Luther and Ben formed a wall between the host and the rest of the group. Klaus and Allison stood on either side of Vanya and Five. All of them insulated her from the man who had shaken her before. 

They were counted down again and the Hargreeves siblings plastered on their perfect smiles again. The host smiled at the camera.  
“Now one of the Hargreeves is going to show off his powers. Diego can throw knives with incredible accuracy.” He stepped back to let Diego step into the spotlight. 

Diego took a step forward and took out his first knife, he spun it in his grasp then threw it at the target, hitting a bullseye. He then turned around and threw another knife, curving it to hit the target again. The show continued on like this for a few minutes, Diego was doing simple trick shots, Five had seen him do more exciting things at training this morning. 

Once they were done the host thanked them all for coming then announced what would happen after the break. They cut to commercial and all the Hargreeves siblings let out a breath. They were hurried off the set and back to the room from before. This time Sir Reginald Hargreeves was waiting for them. No one spoke as they made their way out of the building and back to the car. There was a swarm of fans holding signs that screamed as they came out. Luckily the building had security that kept them out of the way of the children making their way to the car. 

They all squished into the car and a look was passed between the children. There would be a family meeting once they got home. Five had wanted to work on his equations when they got home, he was working on converting spatial jumps to time jumps. But Vanya and his family came first, his equations could wait. The drive home was spent in the tense silence that happened anytime Reginald was within earshot. 

Once they got home, through the crowd of yet more fans that were camped outside their house 24/7, and safely back into the mansion. Grace was waiting for them at the door, she had made cookies. The children went to eat in the kitchen as Reginald disappeared to his study. Pogo was waiting for them in the kitchen and Grace entered soon after they sat down. 

The kitchen table was nicer than the dining room in Five’s opinion. It was brighter and they didn’t have the straight-backed chairs or set places that the dining room did. There was the added bonus that their father never came to the kitchen. Anytime they ate there everyone was more relaxed.

They ate their cookies and exchanged one more glance before being ushered upstairs to bed. They all changed into pyjamas and brushed their teeth, going dutifully back to their rooms. Grace came around and made sure that they were all in bed and said goodnight to them all. 

Five lay in bed staring up at the ceiling counting down the time until their meeting time. H was determinedly not thinking about Vanya and how she looked like a warrior goddess. Like she could kill you and make you happy she was doing it. He was fascinated, she was a beautiful kind of destruction, like a hurricane. He cursed his stupid hormonal teenage brain for making him think of Vanya, his sister (though it could be argued that none of the siblings’ relationships was conventional), his best friend, like that. 

The time finally came for everyone to meet and he dragged himself out of bed, shaking away any lingering thoughts of Vanya. He jumped to the unused guest bedroom that the siblings had converted into their own hideout. Unlike in their rooms, there were no cameras so they could freely meet and discuss things without their father knowing. 

Vanya and Klaus were already in the room when he arrived. Ben was just opening the door as Five arrived in a flash of blue light. The four of them arranged the blankets and pillows on the ground so they could all sit comfortably. Luther was the next to arrive, followed closely by Allison and finally Diego. They sat in a loose circle on the ground, Five next to Vanya and Diego.

“Okay, so that interview was weird and creepy,” Allison said, looking at Vanya.  
“Who would even care about who we’re dating?” Luther asked, looking uncomfortable.  
“Lots of people, like the ones with countdown clocks to our eighteenth birthday.” Vanya bit back, but she seemed more tired than anything.   
“What’s going to happen if we leave. We have people that literally wait outside our house to maybe see a glimpse of us.” Klaus asked.  
“That’s the question.” Five said with a sigh. He had been thinking about that since he was 13. He wanted to get away, just run away from it all. But when the entire world knew your face it was a bit difficult to just disappear.   
A beat passed as everyone thought about it.  
“Has dad been weird in individual training to anyone else?” Ben asked.  
“W-weird how?” Diego asked.  
“Like he’s been more intense, saying I need to be ready to fight at any moment.”  
“Yeah, he’s done the same to me,” Vanya said nodding.  
Five couldn’t remember something like that but it had been weeks since he had had his individual training.  
“I wonder what he’s so worried about,” Allison said.  
“He’s a paranoid old man, who knows.” Five said, rolling his eyes. Though they had no idea what Reginald Hargreevs age was or even his birthday, they knew he was old.  
“We should still be on guard, if dad’s worried then it must be important,” Luther said. Five bit back a groan, Luther was still in the fantasy land that Reginald Hargreeves was a good man.   
“Does anyone else have any news?” Vanya said, she looked exhausted. At everyone’s silence, she smiled. “Great! I’m going to go to bed now.”   
Five watched her get up and carefully open the door then disappear down the hall back to her room.   
“It is late we should all be getting to bed,” Ben said.

They cleaned up the room again, to not leave any suspicion should anyone look in. Allison left first, then Luther, then Diego, then Klaus. Once it was just Five and Ben left, Ben turned to him.  
“You love her.”  
“What?”  
“Vanya, you’re in love with her and very obvious about it.”  
“I am not.”  
“Keep telling yourself that bud.”  
And with a grin, Ben slipped out the door. Five jumped back to his room confused and frustrated. He wanted to talk to Vanya about it, she was always the person he would go to to talk through her feelings, but he couldn’t. With a sigh, he got back into bed and forced his brain to go to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse into the children's training and Number Seven's thoughts and feelings.

After breakfast, the children had lessons all morning, math, science, languages, politics, religion, music. Sir Reginald Hargreeves was determined to have well rounded, intelligent children. So they read the works of ancient philosophers and learned how to calculate the mass of the sun, and learned Ancient Greek. It was strictly regimented by Grace, who was programmed to know the best way to teach each child. Mostly the children enjoyed their lessons, they all helped each other if someone was struggling and it was nicer than training to fight to the death. 

After lunch, they would all change into their training uniforms and would go down to the training room. Whoever had individual training would go off with Reginald or Pogo to a separate part of the house to train and the rest of them would stay and spar or do different fitness exercises. As they walked in they saw dummies set up, target practice. 

“Number Four go with Pogo for your individual training,” Reginald said.  
Vanya hated it when Number Four had individual training, she would hear his cries and hate herself for not being able to do anything. Klaus lowered his head and followed Pogog off to the mausoleum Vanya knew he was locked in for hours.  
“Number Two, Six and Seven you will be working on target practice, Number Five you will assist. Number One and Three come with me.” Reginald continued. He led Luther and Allison to another part of the room for whatever their training would be.

Five made his way to stand in front of the targets, they were practicing hitting the target without hurting an innocent person. Five’s hands pulsed with the blue energy that accompanied his powers, ready to jump away if their aim wasn’t good enough. 

First up was Diego, he was quite good at curving his knives perfectly around Five. He hit each target multiple times before their father said he was done. He moved to the side of the room to sit down and watch them. 

Distantly she could hear Klaus screaming but blocked out any outside noise. She wanted to murder Reginald for what he put Klaus through, any of them through, in individual training. She couldn’t wait to turn 18, to be able to leave this place and the horrors that followed them around. Her and Five would discuss it sometimes where they would go. She was sure her sibling, with the exception of Luther, would all leave the minute they were able.

Ben was up next, he took a deep breath and carefully released a tentacle from his abdomen. He was very careful in his release of the monster that lived inside him. He turned them toward the dummies, his face scrunched in concentration. He managed to pull apart all the dummies without hitting Five, though there were some close calls. Once he was done their father nodded in approval, his control was getting better. As he walked off to join Diego against the wall he gave Vanya a small smile.

She stepped up to the place her brothers had stood before.   
“Practice what we’ve been working on before Number Seven.” Her father called.  
They had been working on her finding a sound in her environment to use for her powers. She closed her eyes, letting her hearing open up. She could hear her siblings’ heartbeats, Pogo writing in his office down the hall, Grace cleaning the kitchen, and of course Klaus all alone in the mausoleum on the edge of their property. 

She focused on the sounds of his cries, his voice hoarse from screaming. She let her anger bubble, feeling her powers crackle under her skin. 

She opened her eyes and let them focus on the first target. She used the screams echoing around her head and destroyed the first dummy. She moved to the next one letting her powers grow a little, tearing this one apart. Five stood in front of the third one, he winked at her as she turned to him. Instead, she focused on the target behind him. She pulled this one apart, letting their stuffing fall to the floor around Five. She turned to the last one and sent out the last of her power, pushing it back and ripping it apart. 

She finished with a sigh, she was tired now. The entire world was a little too bright now, everything was a bit too loud. She turned to her father who was scribbling in his notebook. She went to join her brothers by the wall. Ben handed her a water bottle as she sat down next to him.  
“Are you okay?” He asked.  
“Yeah.” Though she was still seething with anger at their father, her head was a mess of thoughts and emotions, physically she was tired.   
“The four of you are dismissed,” Reginald called, still not looking up from his notes.  
Five had made his way over to them at this point and helped her up. The four quickly left the training room, not wanting to linger in the presence of their father, lest he find more work for them or something to criticize them about. 

Allison and Luther joined them outside the training room, Vanya knew that Klaus would be dismissed soon too. He would go to the stash of pills he kept in the back of his closet and block it all out. She wished she could help him somehow, she so desperately wanted to help her siblings in this house of horrors they lived in. 

It seemed her siblings had decided on something to do while she was stewing in her anger, they had started walking away down the hall. She tugged on Five’s sleeve causing him to turn to her.  
“Can you take me somewhere?” She asked at his questioning gaze.  
“Yeah sure, can we change out of our uniforms first?”   
She nodded and the two made their way upstairs to their bedrooms. Vanya changed quickly, almost on autopilot, lost in her head. When Five jumped to her room she was sitting on her bed antsy to leave.  
“Anywhere in particular?” He asked.  
“Just away.”  
He just nodded at the look in her eyes, taking her hand he pulled them through space. He had been working on longer and longer jumps in his training and had discovered this large empty field outside the city. It was stretching his limits to get them here, she knew he would need a while to get back enough strength to get them back. 

It was good, Vanya needed to scream and cry without the possibility of breaking things. This seemed to be empty and isolated. She pulled her hand from Five’s letting him sit down, walking a bit away from him. Five let her take her time, not force her to talk before she was ready. 

“I hate him.” She called venomously to the empty air. “I hate him!” She screamed. “I hate that he can just do whatever he wants and none of us can stop him. He can just torture us for his own sadistic pleasure. He can make us into his perfect little soldiers and we just have to follow the rules.” She ranted to the sky, feeling the air around her shake. “I want to kill him, destroy him. I want to hurt him the way he hurts the rest of us.” And then she just screamed, letting all her pent up anger and emotion out.

Usually, Vanya was perfectly composed, quiet and emotionless. She learned early on that her emotions were a weapon that would be used against her. She had to seem like she didn’t care, perfect a mask of apathy. There were few that she let down that mask for, let see her true feeling on things. 

Being number seven, the bottom of the list, meant she never got a say in things. She would never be number one, never anyone’s favourite. Instead, she was the one that faded into the background. She felt so alone sometimes, with all of the thoughts swirling around her head. She would then crawl into Five’s bed and he would wrap his arm around her and let her whisper everything in her brain to him in the darkness. Or times like this when the thoughts were too loud and angry and he would take her somewhere and let her scream.

Once her voice had gone hoarse from screaming she was left empty. She sunk to the ground feeling the dirt under her bare knees. She felt tears slipping down her face, could see the dark spots where they dripped onto the ground. She startled slightly when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned and saw Five looking down at her with concern.   
“We have to go back or we’ll be late for dinner.” He whispered.  
She nodded and got up dusting off her uniform and wiping her eyes. She took Five’s outstretched hand and let him take her back to the Academy. 

They landed back in her room and she checked the time, they had 5 minutes before they would be called for dinner.   
“I’ll see you at dinner.” Five said squeezing her hand before jumping back to his room.   
She went to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face, washing away any evidence of her breakdown. She straightened her uniform, making sure there were no signs of her outing. She schooled her features back into their blank expression and made her way downstairs to the dinner table.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hargreeves go to a Reginald approved party.

The children of the Umbrella Academy had grown up being trained in not just how to efficiently kill someone and use their extraordinary powers but how to interact with high society. Sir Reginald Hargreeves was a very rich man and frequented a lot of rich people parties. So when the children were old enough to start accompanying him they were taught to ballroom dance and how to properly interact with these sorts of people. And every few months the children were dressed up and brought to a party where Reginald could show off his biggest achievement, 7 well behaved superhero children. 

That’s why Five found himself sitting in the sitting room as a man flitted around him deciding on what suit he was going to wear. These parties were the only time the children could wear anything other than an Umbrella Academy uniform, though their outfits were picked out for them by professional designers and always had the Umbrella logo somewhere on them. 

The man finally finished dressing Five and hurried him off to the dining room where a bunch of people were doing everyone’s hair and makeup. Five sat dutifully in a chair while they prodded at his face with brushes and cooed over his hair. Until he was finally ready.

He went to stand by the door with the rest of his slowly accumulating siblings. They stood quietly, uncomfortable in the stuffy formal wear. Once they were all ready they lined up in order and waited for their father. He arrived in an equally formal outfit and did a check to make sure they were all up to his standards. With a final nod, they were ready to finally leave. 

The children followed Reginald out and to the car. They all got in, careful not to crease or wrinkle their outfits. They sat with their backs ramrod straight, tense like they were about to go to battle. And in a way they were. 

They pulled up in front of another fancy mansion with a bunch of cars all around the front door. They all got out the car, smoothing down their skirts and suit jackets they followed Reginald up the steps to the house. They entered a room full of people drinking champagne and talking about how they fucked over the working class this week.

“Children, I have business to attend to, you may mingle but be back here at 10 o’clock sharp.” Their father turned to them. They all nodded and he turned on his heel and disappeared into the crowd.

Allison pulled Luther off to go talk to the rich people, she loved being the center of attention and would always try and brush shoulders with the rich and famous at these kinds of things, dragging Luther around with her like a well-trained puppy. Klaus, Ben and Diego had gone off in another direction in search of the food and alcohol. That left Vanya and Five.

For the first time that night, Five got to actually look at Vanya. She was in an elegant black evening gown with her hair done up in a fancy braid updo. In a word, she looked breathtaking. She smiled at him and he grinned back at her.

“Do you want to dance?” She asked. He didn’t particularly feel like dancing but he had nothing else to do and really couldn’t say no to her.

“One dance.” He raised a finger at her. She simply rolled her eyes and led them to the ballroom. 

There was a quartet set up playing on one side of the room. They were just finishing a song as the pair entered. Everyone turned and clapped politely, some people leaving after the dance was over. Vanya instead pulled them unto the floor placing her arm on his shoulder, the other clasped in his hand. He placed his own hand on her waist as the music started again and they began to spin around the room. 

She felt so small in his arms, so fragile, in his arms. Though he knew the power she wielded, the energy bubbling under her skin. She was so much more powerful than him, even if he did manage to figure out time jumps. He would never be able to do anything close to what she could do. She was a force of nature that had pulled him into her orbit. 

They danced spinning effortlessly around the adults. They had been trained on how to do this, spent their days running obstacle courses and sparing. They had years of muscle and endurance training built up. Five could sense people watching their much more sophisticated dancing as he spun her but kept his focus on Vanya.

Vanya managed to convince him into 3 dances before he pulled them back off the dance floor. He found a grand staircase leading up to a balcony overlooking the rest of the party. They sat on the steps about halfway up, where they could watch the people milling about below. Five could see Allison dragging Luther onto the dance floor, and Klaus and Diego passing a bottle of some kind in the corner. He couldn’t see Ben from where they were but he was probably talking to some fan, there were bound to be some in the crowd, and they always felt entitled to their time. 

Vanya leaned back, resting her elbows on the step above her. She surveyed the crowd, her face impassive. She turned to him, as if sensing his gaze, and smiled slightly. It didn’t light up her face the way her smiles sometimes did. It was softer and quieter, her eyes were still hard, just the twitch of her lips showed any emotion. They had all been taught impassiveness by their father and Vanya was by far the best at not showing her emotions, though Five thought he was a close second.

He turned back to the crowd and watched all the people in their fancy evening wear milling below. It was interesting to watch normal ordinary people. People who didn’t immediately find the exits in a room, weren’t constantly checking their surroundings for threats, didn’t have concealed weapons on them at all times, constantly ready for an attack. People who weren’t constantly fighting for the attention of an emotionally distant man, who only ever gave them scorn and disappointment.

Their entire family was a mess of trauma and emotional manipulation. The Umbrella Academy did not properly understand emotions and were extremely codependent on one another. They had grown up learning how to work together as a team, one fraught with inferiority complexes and competition sure but a team all the same. They had grown to protect each other closely, watch each other’s blind spots. It was imperative to survival in a house that would take any weakness and exploit it. 

The Academy was not the perfect soldiers that Reginald wanted them to be but they were a team nonetheless.

Five was pulled out of his thoughts by Vanya knocking her knees into his. He looked up at her questioningly. She was grinning at him, mischief dancing in her eyes. She pointed down to the crowd. Five followed her gaze and saw Ben being pulled onto the dance floor by an old woman, she was obviously drunk and falling over his brother laughing. Ben looked very uncomfortable as he was dragged onto the dance floor and the obnoxious woman placed her hands on his shoulder. 

Vanya, always nicer than Five, got up to go save their brother. Five was ready to follow her when something else caught his eye. Sir Reginald Hargreeves was following a man in a blue suit into a backroom that was off-limits to the rest of the party. Leaving Vanya to deal with their brother Five instead switched his trajectory to follow his father. 

The door was unlocked when he got to it and he carefully pushed it open a crack. Looking in he saw a hallway with another door at the end. He quietly slipped through the door and down the hallway. He stopped at the other door and placed his ear to it to listen. He could hear some muffled voices behind the door. 

“-she is a strong asset.” He heard a man say.

“They will learn… they must be able to…” Five could only hear snippets of Reginald’s response. He wished he had brought Vanya, she would easily be able to hear what was happening in the room. The man said something else Five couldn’t then he heard Reginald again.

“5000 now and 5000 once the target is secured,” Reginald said. Then Five heard the sound of footsteps making their way toward the door he was next to. He jumped just before the person made it to the door. 

He landed back on the stairs he and Vanya had been sitting on. He looked out over the crowd and saw she and Ben were making their way towards him, alone. They were smiling and laughing together. Five pushed the weird conversation he had overheard out of his head. He would think about it later, when they got back home, he would probably ask Vanya about it, she might have heard something about what their father was doing. He decided to spend the rest of their night of almost freedom with his siblings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise next chapter we'll have some actual plot.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya gets kidnaped.

Vanya had a fairly normal nighttime routine. A half-hour before their 10 o’clock bedtime she would go to the bathroom on the 3rd floor, the one by all the unused bedrooms. She would have a hot shower and wash all the stress and sweat of the day off. If she had a particularity bad day she would use her fancy soaps, the ones that smelled like lavender. She would then brush and braid her hair, she liked how it would be curly when she woke up. She would finally brush her teeth and change into her pyjamas. On her way to her room, she would pass Five’s room and would look in. If he was there she might stay for a bit and talk to him. Once she got back to her room she would climb into her nicely made bed. At 10 mom would come around and say goodnight to all of them and make sure they were in their rooms. Vanya would then usually read until she fell asleep.

Vanya was a notoriously light sleeper, her enhanced hearing making her wake to almost any sound. So it was surprising that the men had managed to get into her room without her waking up. Instead, she woke up to a hand with a cloth covering her mouth. Her training immediately kicked in and she thrashed against the man holding her down. But the man only pressed the cloth harder against her face causing her to breathe in whatever was on it. Vanya felt her already only half-awake body passing out again. She slowly stopped struggling and went limp as she stared up into the face of her attacker. She, unfortunately, couldn’t see their face due to a mask and the shadows of her room covering it. The last thing she thought before she passed out again was to wonder how they had gotten past the mansion’s security. 

When she woke up again she was in the dark. It felt like her arms and legs were bound and what felt like duct tape was covering her mouth. She could vaguely hear an engine and could feel the swaying movement, she was probably in the trunk of a car. Everything felt a little far away, usually she could hear everything around her and would normally be easily able to hear what was happening in the car. Now though, it was like she was underwater, everything was muffled and distant. 

She drifted back out of consciousness and when she woke again she wasn’t in a car anymore. She was no longer bound and seemed to be in some kind of padded room. It looked similar to a jail cell, with a small cot and a toilet and sink on one side. There was a large door with a small window at about eye height. There was the blinking red light signifying a camera in one of the corners.

The first thing she realized though was not any of this, it was the deafening silence. Vanya had grown up always being aware of the world around her through sound. No one could sneak up on her because she could hear their footsteps approaching. She was constantly aware of the entire mansion and what the people in it were doing. She would sometimes pass her time listening to the conversations of strangers down below. 

But now it was nothing. An oppressive kind of nothingness. One that she had never experienced and didn’t know what to do with. So she screamed.

And she could hear herself scream. She breathed a sigh of relief, her hearing wasn’t gone. It was as if the sound were gone. Her scream seemed to get sucked up by the walls around her. She looked properly at the room now. It seemed to be made of some kind of black foam type substance and it seemed to suck all the sound out to the room and block all the sounds of the outside world. 

She goes to look out the small window and sees only a long hallway with no widows that lead to yet another door. She screams out the window for a bit, hoping that maybe someone will hear her and come help. It’s futile, she knows, the people who kidnapped and put her in this place are not going to simply let her out if she begs them. 

She feels panic starting to bubble in the chest. Her breath coming in short gasps and she sits down when her vision starts to go dark around the edges. She forces herself to take some deep breaths, remembering Five breathing exaggeratedly in front of her the last time she had had a panic attack.

This causes another round of panic. What happened to the other members of the Umbrella Academy? Were they also kidnapped? Were they in other rooms nearby and she couldn’t hear them? Were they also having their powers suppressed?

She was pulled out of her panic by someone opening the door. Her head immediately snapped up and she saw a man with a mask covering his face standing in the doorway.

“Good you’re awake.” He drawled.

She immediately got up and into a fighting stance, already sizing him up.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you girly.” The man simply laughed at her. “Now how much do you think your daddy will pay for your pretty little head?”

She wanted to spit back: Nothing! And it was true, Reginald would probably treat this as an exercise in teamwork and make the Academy come save her before he paid to get her back. He already bought her once, he didn’t want to do it again. She would get a long lecture if she ever saw her father again. She stayed quiet though, staring blankly at the man towering over her. 

The man simply laughed at her and put down a stack of clothes that he was holding then turned on his heel and left again. She watched him walk down the hall and out the door at the end to whatever was on the other side. Only once he was gone did she turn to the pile of fabric he left. 

It seems to be a gown, like the ones they give you in hospital. It’s a nice cotton one though, high quality. Her pyjamas are now kind of gross from being dragged out of bed and tied up and dumped in a car for an indeterminate amount of time. She decides fuck it, if they’re not going to kill her they might as well play their game. If that means putting on some stupid dress then why not. 

She glances a bit warily at the camera in the corner before quickly changing. The gown is quite comfortable actually, it reminds her slightly of her many uniforms at home. It seems odd that the kidnappers, who apparently took her to get money, were putting all this effort into her. 

The man returns and this time brings a tray of food. This time he is silent and only puts the try on the floor and collects her dirty pyjamas. She again waits until he is completely gone before turning to the food. She eats slowly, thinking about what she’s going to do next.

It seems as if they’re not going to kill or hurt her in any way, they would have already if they were going to. They seem more interested in getting Reginald’s money than her. It seems she would be in it for the long haul. There was no way her father would negotiate with criminals. Instead, she had to rely on her siblings, hoping they would be able to find her. 

She lay down on the cold cement floor and looked up at the ceiling. The quiet was oppressive. She felt claustrophobic like the walls were slowly closing in on her. She could barely hear her own heartbeat. She closed her eyes and tried to listen, to hear anything. It was just nothingness in every direction. She hated it, hated the silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See I told you there'd be plot.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the Hargreeves find Vanya missing.

Five woke up late in the morning, only having a few minutes before breakfast. He rushed through getting dressed and managed to brush his teeth before they were called down. He was excited, they had most of the day off, he and Vanya were planning to sneak out to the public library. Vanya wanted some new violin pieces and novels, she was particularly interested in gothic horror at the moment, and Five needed some new textbooks for a theory he was working on. He also still had to talk to her about the weird conversation he’d overheard at the party.

When he got to the table though Vanya was not in her usual spot. He glanced across the table at Ben and nodded to her empty space questioningly. Ben only shrugged. It was strange, Vanya was never late to meals and was usually one of the first people up in the morning. Yet her space was empty, Five had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Their father arrived and commanded them to sit. They did so silently as mom started the informational survival record for the morning. Reginald did not seem to notice the missing member of the family. They ate in silence as usual, only the clinking of silverware over the droning sound of the lecturer. Five kept glancing at the door expecting Vanya to come running in late, apologizing then sitting down and eating her waffles. But she never came.

Once they were done and excused Five glanced around at his siblings, seeing equally confused looks about Vanya’s empty seat. Before they could discuss it though they were called to the sitting room by Pogo. They only ever went to the sitting room when there was news, often when Reginald was going away for some reason or another or if they had an extended mission that required planning. 

They sat on the uncomfortable, decorative couches, backs straight. They waited quietly for their father to come and tell them about whatever rich person wanted them to do security for them. He itched to jump to Vanya’s room and see what was wrong with her. She had to be super sick if she wasn’t at breakfast. He wanted to make sure she was okay. There was still swirling anxiety in his gut.

Finally, Reginald entered and they all turned to him expectantly. He had an odd look on his face, almost apprehensive. He cleared his throat before speaking.

“It seems that someone broke in last night. And that they kidnapped Number Seven.” Five felt his stomach drop. “Now out security is top quality so it was your own incompetence that let Number Seven be taken.” With that, he turned on his heel and left the room.

His siblings immediately started speaking over each other. Five just sat staring at his hands thinking of the last time he had seen her. Just last night, she had smiled softly at him as she was going to bed. They had plans for the day, they were going to go to the library and read books all afternoon. They were all going to go out for doughnuts soon. 

Five jumped to his room, he needed to think away from his siblings yelling. Also, he felt like he might cry or throw up and didn’t particularly want to do that in front of them. He took a deep breath and glanced around the room. 

“Five?” Five whipped around to see Ben standing in the doorway. “Are you okay?”

Five only nodded mutely.

“Okay well, Diego went to ask mom for the footage from last night so maybe we can see who did it.” He paused for a moment. “We’re trying to figure out a plan and it would be nice to have your help.”

“Thanks, Ben, uh I’ll go check her room for clues. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“Okay. She’s strong Five, she’ll be okay.” Five simply nodded again.

He jumped to Vanya’s room and looked around. Everything seemed to be in place at first glance. The only odd thing being the unmade bed, but seeing as she was taken while she was asleep it didn’t seem that strange. He scoured the room for anything that could lead to Vanya but found everything exactly where it was supposed to be. The pile of books next to her desk, her violin tucked in a corner, her half-finished math assignment and history textbook on her desk. It was the same tidy room it always was.

With a slight sigh, he jumped back to the living room to find it empty. Realizing his siblings probably moved somewhere more comfortable he jumped to the kitchen. His assumption was correct and he found them huddled around the table all looking sombre. 

“Vanya’s room is empty, there’s nothing there.” He informed the room, sitting in one of the empty seats. The final empty one glaring mockingly at him, telling him that someone was missing. 

At that point, mom entered the room clutching a bunch of tapes and a small tv. She placed them on the table and smiled at them all. 

“Here are the tapes from last night, children. It appears the ones from Vanya’s room and the hallway was disabled for a few minutes, presumably for the period of time she was taken.”

“Thanks, mom.” Ben smiled back at her.

Luther and Allison immediately started setting up the tapes, Diego helping to clear off the table, Klaus and Ben organizing a notebook to take notes. Five just sat back and watched. It was kind of funny actually, now that one of them was missing they were all working together. They were the perfect team dad always wanted them to be. 

The first tape from Vanya’s room started playing. It showed her going to bed and falling asleep fairly quickly. They fast-forwarded to a few minutes before the tapes were messed with. Everything seemed normal, they all watched with bated breath as Vanya slept on normally and then suddenly it cut off and went black for a few seconds then it came back and Vanya was gone. Allison sucked in a breath but everything else was quiet. Five scowled at the video. 

“Okay, maybe the one from the hall?” Klaus tentatively asked as the tape kept playing on, now just showing an empty unmade bed. 

Everyone nodded and Luther put in the next tape. They watched the empty hallway for the next few minutes, the only interesting bit coming when it went blank for a few seconds before coming back again a few minutes later in the recording. 

“What about the ones from outside the camera room?” Five asked, suddenly getting an idea.

Luther looked through the tapes for a second before putting the right one in. They played it and watched Reginald go into the room then the hall was empty, no one else came for the entire tape, though Reginald did eventually leave.

“They must have found a way to only disable the cameras from outside the room,” Ben said.

“Dad really needs to up his security if people were able to come to take Seven,” Diego muttered.

Five was thinking the same thing, why hadn’t Vanya woken up? That was the only reason they weren’t dealing with a bunch of dead men. Vanya was the best of them and if she was being overpowered she would have called out for the rest of them. No one could sneak up on her because she would have woken up and heard them in the hall. It was so strange. Whoever they were they had to be good, which meant the Umbrella Academy had to be at their best. 

Five sighed slightly, this was going to be a long day of pouring over the footage when Vanya could be who knows where having who knows what done to her. He didn’t want to think about that too long or he’d get angry. He needed to be level headed to find Vanya. 

They went on to the next tape, looking at all the different angles for the different hallways and seeing nobody. The one thing they got was a decent path that the kidnappers followed based on what cameras were shut off. And how long it took to get in and out only 10 minutes. 

They went and retraced the steps of the kidnappers to see if they could find any clues. They found nothing in the house that could be helpful. When they were standing outside looking out though Klaus spotted a camera from the building across the street, facing the street. 

“Maybe it got the licence plate or something about the people.”

They rushed to find Pogo to ask him to get the footage from the other camera. Within the hour they were all once more huddled around the small tv on the kitchen table. They watched as a red car pulled up and three masked men got out. Ben quickly jotted down the license plate and other identifying features of the car. The men disappeared into their house only to reappear a few minutes later with a now passed out and bound Vanya supported between them. They carried her with strange care but that was ultimately thrown out when they placed her in the trunk of the car.

Five seethed, he would find these men and hurt them, quite possibly kill them. He would get Vanya back if it was the last thing he did. And then they would go to the library and out for doughnuts. And he would never let her go again.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How is Vanya doing (spoiler alert not very well) and what the rest of the siblings are up to while they wait for new information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter feels kind of filler, idk how I feel about it.

Vanya was starting to lose her mind. She wasn’t entirely sure how long she had been locked in this room but it felt like an eternity. She was slowly losing her grip on reality. 

The men had stopped coming into her room to give her things after she had attacked one of them. She had managed to get a few good hits in before they got out of the room and locked her in. They now slid her meals through a slot in the door. She would see them approaching through the small window but they still always wore masks so she had no idea who they were.

She had taken to talking or sometimes singing to herself to reassure herself she could still hear. She would just speak her thoughts out loud. She also sang or hummed some of the songs mom liked to sing to them when they were little. Sometimes she just screamed, revelling in the feeling of her throat straining and the pressure in her chest.

She would spend a lot of her time sleeping because there was nothing else to do. Her dreams were filled with the rest of her siblings. Sometimes they were young and running around laughing and playing. Sometimes they all just stood in silence and watched her, eyes boring into her. Some they taunted and laughed at her and told her she was useless for being taken, for not giving a fight, for not having gotten herself out yet.

She knows she should have been able to get out by now. But she can’t think with all the silence, it’s oppressive. Anytime she tries to think about it she starts panicking. Her only hope is that her family cares enough to come find her. 

She has been thinking about all of them lately. She doesn’t have much else to do, all alone with her thoughts in this black box. She had decided that she was going to convince them all to leave when they were old enough. Her and Five had talked about what the two of them would do but she was determined to bring the others.

She saw how the rest were treated. Luther, constantly being told he was never good enough, being snubbed by their father. Diego, always being reminded he was Number Two and he could never be Number One. Allison, so starved for attention and validation she would do anything to get it, and she had been taught to use her words as a weapon. Klaus, being so afraid of his powers he used whatever substances he could get his hands on to numb them. Five, constantly being pushed to be the smartest, to make up for everyone’s mistakes, to be in five places at once. Ben, being forced to unleash a monster that he couldn’t control, that was always thirsty for blood. And then there was her. Always picking up for the rest of them, and always the scapegoat. It didn’t matter how hard any of them trained or how well they behaved their father would never be happy. 

She was determined to convince them all to leave. If they saved up together they could probably get a place to live and be able to live actual lives. She knew Luther would be the hardest sell, always the good soldier. And if Luther was staying Diego and Allison probably would as well. Klaus would probably leave without much convincing, Ben trailing after him. But Ben should have a better life than trying to keep Klaus sober. If they all left together they could help each other. 

Vanya lay on the cold concrete floor, thoughts racing around in her head. She tried to listen to the sound of her heartbeat, but it seemed muffled, like everything in this damn room. She just wanted to hear something, anything. She wanted to be able to hear the cars passing on the road and the comforting presence of other heartbeats, reminding her she wasn’t alone. She missed the comforting sounds of her family moving around the old creaky mansion.

She felt so small and useless in the stupid box. Without her powers she was nothing. So completely ordinary and useless. Relying on everyone else to do everything for her, to come save her like she was some disney princess. 

With a new burst of energy, she stood up and rushed to the wall. She started scratching and pulling at the black foam. She let out a cry as she tore at it, felt her nails tearing as she clawed at the wall. She managed to get a chunk off only to be met with a concrete wall underneath. With a defeated sigh she sat back down on the floor, she wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon.

__________________

The rest of the Hargreeves siblings had spent the day doing research. They had called the city police and were trying to track down the licence plate, though it was probably from a stolen car. The siblings had all scattered to different parts of the house. Diego was doing target practice and sharpening his knives in the training room. Luther and Allison had gone off together, presumably to their not so secret spot in the attic. Klaus was smoking and Ben was presumably trailing after him. 

Pogo said he would call them all if he heard anything. Reginald had pulled himself completely out of it all and holed himself up in his office. Though he had not called them for training or a mission, not like any of them would go if he had, so maybe he was doing his part. 

Five had gone over all the tapes so many times they were practically burned into his memory. Now he was wandering the mansion without purpose. He had so many thoughts turning around in his head. He liked to talk his thoughts out, usually to Vanya, so he was lost at the moment. He found himself outside Vanya’s room and slowly pushed the door open. 

Everything was still where it was supposed to be as he walked in. He walked over to the unmade bed and lay down. It smelled like the shampoo Vanya used and the laundry soap mom washed their sheets in. He closed his eyes and imagined Vanya was next to him, waiting patiently until he started talking. And so he talked to her.

“I don’t know what I’m doing.” He whispered. “Everyone keeps looking to me to know everything, I’m the smart one. But I have no idea. And I’m scared and I miss you. If they were able to take you then what will they do to the rest of us?”

He told his imaginary Vanya all of his anxieties and worries that had been building up. It wasn’t like when she was actually there but it was nice. It felt like the weight on his chest wasn’t suffocating him any longer. 

He got up and righted his uniform and walked out of the room. He decided to go find his siblings. If they were going to find Vanya, and they would find her, they would need all of them together. A united front. 

He decided to find Ben and Klaus first, not particularly wanting to bother Diego or Allison and Luther. He jumped to the back courtyard, where Klaus liked getting high. It was a bit chilly out as night had fallen sometime when he was in Vanya’s room. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself and looked around for his brothers.

He saw Klaus sitting against a tree passing Ben a half-smoked joint. He walked towards them.

“Hey, little brother.” Klaus grinned at him when he saw him approaching.

“We were all born at the same time.” 

“Yeah but you exude younger sibling energy.”

“Whatever.”

Five sat down facing the other two and they turned so they were in a sort of triangle. Ben offered him the joint, Five took it and inhaled a large breath of smoke before passing it back to Klaus. All of the siblings had taken part in some less potent drugs at some point, they had all gotten high together. Five wasn’t a huge fan of how it seemed to slow everything down but now with his current racing thoughts, he wasn’t that against it. 

They sat in silence as they finished off the joint between the three of them. After a few minutes, Diego came and found them outside. He joined their little circle as they sat quietly. He and Ben had a quiet conversation while Five and Klaus just sat with their thoughts. Eventually, the final two siblings came and joined them as well. They sat in a circle all quietly lost in thought. 

Five leaned his head back and looked up at the few stars visible in the night sky. He was acutely aware, even with the drugs running through his system, of the gaping hole next to him. Vanya would usually sit next to him and they would have their own silent conversation about what she heard the others talking about or they would just sit in each other's company. Now though, staring up at the stars, he felt so very alone in the universe.

“Enough moping, let’s go find our sister!” Klaus started brightly, standing up.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They find Vanya!

They had done it! It had been 3 days but through the help of the local police department, and probably some of Reginald's connections, they had managed to find Vanya. Five hadn’t really been paying attention to all the particulars but somehow they had done it. 

Pogo had called them all to the sitting room and told them the police chief had called. He said that they had tracked the car to an owner and then to an old abandoned warehouse on the edge of the city. They were sending police to surround the area but wouldn’t go in until the Academy had arrived. 

The children had scattered to their rooms. They dressed in their mission uniforms and collected their preferred weapons before converging again by the door. They left with Pogo to the car, anxious energy radiating between them. Pogo brought a stack of blankets, presumably for when they found Vanya.

They all squished into the car and sat quietly, fidgeting anxiously in their seats. They drove for what felt like an eternity, anxiety mounting with every passing second. By the time the car finally stopped Five practically had blue energy crackling in palms. 

The children all jumped out and rushed to the main officer in charge. He sighed in relief when he saw their arrival and waved them over.

“Okay, we think there are 5 men inside the building, the plans say there are three floors, but we are unsure where they’re keeping the girl. We’ll send in officers in the front giving a distraction to let you slip in the back.” He led them over to a set of building plans and showed where they would be entering. “Hopefully they will come to fight us, giving you a clear path to find the hostage.” Five wanted to snap that he was talking about their sister, not some civilian. “We’re ready to go, I’ll let you get into position, be ready on my cue.”

They made their way around the back of the building and stood by the door. Diego bent down beside it and took out his lock picking tools and set to work unlocking it. By the time they had got the door unlocked Five could hear the policemen on the other side breaking in the door and rushing in screaming like idiots. Five was kind of unsure how they ever had a tactical advantage if they ran into things screaming but he supposed at this particular time it was an advantage for them.

The six siblings quietly entered the building and found themselves at a staircase. They split up into groups of two, Allison and Diego continuing to search the floor they were on, Ben and Luther going upstairs, and Five and Klaus going down. 

Five and Klaus crept down the stairs pausing at the door at the bottom. After a look and a few hand motions, Five carefully cracked the door and peeked through. There was a room on the other side but the small view he had didn’t show most of it. He silently pushed the door fully open and rushed in with Klaus behind. The room was fairly small and only had one man sitting on a plush chair that looked up as they entered. 

Five immediately went into attack mode, jumping to just in front of the man as he stood up. The man tried to hit Five but he dodged out of the way. He grabbed the man’s arm and, using his momentum, threw him to the ground. At this moment Klaus rushed forward and hit the man over the head with a spare piece of pipe he had found, effectively knocking him out. 

Five and Klaus found some rope and managed to quickly tie the man up with some spare rope lying around and a makeshift gag. The room appeared to be an unfinished supply room of sorts and the man had been sitting in the only piece of furniture in the place. 

They went to the next door to find it also unlocked. They again slowly carefully opened it. There was no one waiting for them on the other side, simply a long cement hallway. They quietly made their way down but realized there was only a large door at the end. 

They got to the end of the hallway and peered in the small window that was in the large iron door. There was a small room, the walls covered in black foam. The only thing either of them noticed though was Vanya curled up in a corner, her knees pulled up to her chest rocking slightly. 

“I think I can get in but if it’s blocking her powers I might be able to get out. Luther should be able to open this door. You go find the others, I’ll stay with her.” Five told Klaus. He stood staring at, who they arguably thought of as, their younger sister for a few more seconds before turning and rushing back down the hall. 

Five gathered blue energy in his hands and pushed himself through space to the other side of the door. He landed in the small room and turned immediately to Vanya. She was humming something to herself in the quiet of the room.

“Vanya?” Her head immediately shot up to look at him.

“Five?”

“Yeah, it’s me. We’re all here, Klaus just went to get the others. We’re gonna get you out of here.” He walked across the room and kneeled down next to her. She reached out to him and wrapped him in a hug, clutching tightly at the back of his blazer. He hugged her back just as tightly.

“You promise you’re real? You’re actually here and not some dream?” 

“I’m really here, it's really me.”

She lay her head on his chest and seemed to relax a bit. Five realized she was listening to his heartbeat and tried to slow it down from its current frantic pace. He started slowly running his hands through her hair, hoping to calm her down a bit. They stayed like that for a while until there was a tapping on the window. They looked and saw the rest of their siblings on the other side. 

Luther seemed to usher everyone away from the window and stood in front of the door. The faint sound of metal grinding was heard and Five helped Vanya get up from the ground. Then the door was open and everyone was rushing in. 

Five kept Vanya tight to his side, helping to support some of her weight. Allison and Ben rushed towards her and hugged her, pulling Five in with her. It turned into a group hug when Klaus Diego and finally Luther joined. They stood like that, hugging for a while before they all pulled away and walked out. 

Five stayed next to Vanya as they walked out of her weird prison room. Once they left the room Vanya took a deep breath, almost a sigh of relief. She seemed more sure of herself and less scared as they made their way down the hall. They got to the room where the man was still knocked out and Vanya looked around curiously. Five saw her close her eyes and recognized she was casing the building. She reached out and grabbed his arm as they kept walking and he carefully led her up the stairs with the rest of their siblings. 

Vanya came back to herself and they found their way back outside and around the building to where the police were waiting. They went over to the officer they had been talking to before. He was now talking into a radio, presumably with the officers inside the building. Luther stood at the front of the group to talk to him.

“We checked the three floors and found one man in the basement, he has been incapacitated. I would recommend your men do a full search of the building once they are done. And we found our sister.” Luther said, using a similar voice to that he would use to tell Sir Reginald after their missions.

“Congratulations! My men have apprehended most of the individuals and are starting a full search of the building now. I’m happy to have been able to get your sister back.” He turned to Vanya who shrank into Five’s side, he just wrapped his arm more securely around her. 

They went over to the car where Pogo was waiting for them.

“Miss Vanya, so good to see you again,” Pogo said as they got in the car. “Are you hurt in any way?”

“I’m okay Pogo,” Vanya said, voice quiet. 

Diego and Klaus helped her get some of the blankets that had been brought around her and Five settled in next to her. The car started and they drove back through the city to their home. They were quiet on the ride home, but instead of the anxious energy from before a more calm excited one was present. 

When they got home there was almost a mob of fans outside the gates, the Umbrella Academy had not left the house in days and now they had gone on a secret mission, they were practically foaming at the mouth. They got through the group and safely behind the gate before they got out of the car. Then resolutely ignored the screaming mass of noise and quickly walked into the house. 

Mom was waiting for them all in the front foyer when they entered. She immediately took Vanya away for a checkup and said if any of them had been injured to come with her, they were all fine so they stayed in the foyer. 

They watched as mom led Vanya towards the infirmary and all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. They were all back together, all seven united again. The Umbrella Academy was whole again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya's first night back home.

Mom checked Vanya over and deemed her in good health in time for dinner. She sat quietly at the table, acutely aware of everyone’s eyes on her. She didn’t look up, she didn’t want to see her siblings’ concerned faces. Not even when Five kicked her foot under the table, simply stared at her plate and kept eating. Once their father was finished he dismissed them all but stopped her as they got up.

“Number Seven, I want to see you in my office.”

Vanya nodded and again didn’t look at her siblings as she left the room. She went to her room and straightened her uniform that mom had given her before dinner. She took a deep breath and opened her door to go see her father. Five was standing outside waiting for her. 

“Five I have to go see dad.”

“I know.”

“I promise we’ll talk after okay?”

He sighed. “Yeah okay.”

She walked past him and back down to Reginald’s office. She stood outside the door for a second. No matter how old she got standing in front of Reginald's office always made her feel small. She stepped forward and knocked on the large oak door.

“Come in.”

Vanya carefully opened the door and walked in, she went and stood in front of Reginald’s desk. 

“Ah, Number Seven, good.” He looked up at her and she kept her expression perfectly neutral. “I want a report of what happened.”

“I was sleeping that night, after the party and I woke up in the middle of the night to a man standing over me and he pressed a cloth to my face--”

“You did not hear him approaching?”

“No, I just felt very tired and heavy. The man knocked me back out and when I woke up again I was bound and in the trunk of a car. It was like my powers were muffled somehow cause I couldn’t hear anything happening in the car. I was immediately knocked out again, I think they drugged me with something.”

“Where did they take you?”

“I woke up again in this small room with black foam on the walls. It was really quiet, I couldn’t hear anything on the outside. The room seemed to suck up any sound so I couldn’t use my powers.” She resists the urge to shiver at the memory.

“Did you see any more of the men?”

“Yeah for the first day they would come in to give me food and stuff, but they always wore masks. They stopped coming into the room when I attacked one of them.”

“Good, good. Do you remember anything else?”

“No sir.”

“Very well, Number Seven. We will work more on not relying so much on your powers in training, all you children do not have good enough combat skills it seems.”

“Yes sir.”

“Dismissed.” He turned back to his papers on his desk, a pensive expression on his face.

Vanya turned and left the room and went back upstairs to her room. Five was sitting waiting for her on her bed. As soon as she walked in and shut the door behind her she sunk to the floor and started crying.

“Hey, Vanya. Hey, what’s wrong?”

She felt Five’s arms wrap around her and sunk into them. He just held her as they sat on the floor, her shaking and him rubbing her back soothingly, similar to how they were earlier. After a few minutes, she managed to stop crying and pulled back so they were just sitting next to each other.

“Okay, why don’t I go make us some hot chocolate, you get changed and I’ll meet you in my room?” She nodded. “Okay.”

He helped her up off the floor then jumped out of the room in a flash of blue. Vanya changed into the thick cotton pyjamas with the umbrella logo on the breast. She looked down at the umbrella tattoo on her wrist, the thing binding all of them together. She thought back to the promise she had made herself a couple days prior. She would get the Umbrella Academy together and she would help them and in two years when they were able she would get them out of here. 

Once she was changed she went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. She needed a shower but was too exhausted after the long day she had to do it. After she was done in the bathroom she went to Five’s room.

The door was slightly open, which she knew meant she could enter. She walked into the room to see Five had not yet returned from his mission to get them hot chocolate. She walked over to look at the books on his bookshelf.

They were mostly advanced math and physics textbooks that she barely understood if just through all her time hanging around Five. There was one shelf though, that was dedicated to all of his fiction novels. Five as it turned out had an affinity to romanticism and aestheticism, his dedicated shelf was packed with old classic novels. Vanya herself particularly enjoyed horror, while Ben was a fan of fantasy. The three of them had a book club every couple of weeks where they would talk about whatever they were reading. 

Five jumped back into the room with a small pop. He had two steaming mugs of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies, mom must have made. He placed them on his desk and looked over to where she was.

“I’m going to go get changed, you get comfortable.” 

“Okay.”

He crossed over to his closet and pulled out a matching set of pyjamas to hers then jumped back out of the room. Vanya went over to the bed, pulling the covers down so they could both fit. She went and got the mugs and placed them on Five’s bedside table for easy access and then brought the plate of cookies to bed. She climbed into the bed and snuggled into the covers on her side. Five came back a couple minutes later now dressed in his pyjamas. He dumped his uniform in his laundry basket for mom to come collect then climbed into bed next to her. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Five asked turning to her.

“I guess, it’s stupid really. It’s just dad being dad, he asked me to tell him about what happened and it just felt like I was back there you know? God, I was so scared Five, I thought you wouldn’t come for me and I’d be there all alone for the rest of my life.”

“I’ll always come find you, I promise.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her for a few minutes. When she eventually pulled away she turned to him with a determined expression.

“We have to convince all of them to leave. We have a year and a half till we turn 18, I’m bringing the entire Umbrella Academy with us when we go.”

“Okay.”

“And we need to be more of a team, we need to do more things as a group. I won’t let dad divide us anymore.”

“Okay, where do we start.”

Vanya smiled slightly to herself, Five was on board with her plan to unite their siblings. She thought if they all worked together more they could have a better chance of making it in the world when they all turned 18. 

They spent the rest of the evening planning how they would help their siblings and drinking hot chocolate and eating mom’s chocolate chip cookies. They stayed up late into the night, neither wanting to sleep after the day they had, writing ideas for how they could move a group of Seven superheroes with very little life experience out of the house. Some of them would want to go to university but others definitely did not. They would have to discuss it with everyone soon. 

The pair eventually fell into an exhausted sleep and wok the next morning to Five's alarm going off.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Vanya's kidnapping.

Vanya had been back home for about a week now. She still had terrible nightmares and after a couple days of climbing into Five’s bed in the middle of the night, she had started simply sleeping in his bed. She would sneak in after mom had gone and said lights out. She would lie with her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat as she fell asleep and he would wrap his arms around her to remind himself she was there and safe. 

All the siblings had had a family meeting a couple days after Vanya had gotten back. Vanya and Five had explained their idea to start having regular meetings and more group bonding activities. They also decided to start looking at places they could go once they turned 18. Universities with programs for them all and cheap housing. 

Allison said she wanted to go to LA to become an actress which everyone seemed less excited about. Vanya had said she’d try to talk to her and convince her of somewhere less conspicuous. Everyone had agreed though to start thinking about what they wanted to do when they left. 

If it was up to Five they’d move out to the country, near a small town where no one knew who they were and they would be able to live as they wanted. But he knew most of his siblings had a taste for adrenaline and wanted to be in the city. Maybe someday, when they were all grown and stable enough to live on their own he would move out to the country.

Five supposed he should probably be looking at university too. He could easily go into a math or theoretical physics program. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go to university, he wasn’t super into the idea of learning more and was often bored and annoyed when others couldn’t keep up with his thought process. Though he did need a degree to be able to do any kind of research in the field so he would have to get through a few years of schooling at least. Maybe he could do some expedited program and be done quickly. He would have to look into it more.

He knew that Vanya was deciding between Russian literature and a music degree. Five thought she could easily get into a professional orchestra on her own now but she said that she wanted to get professional education on it first. Vanya was pretty much completely self-taught when it came to music and could play extremely complicated pieces with ease. She never failed to amaze Five with her music and he was sure she could easily become a famous musician if she wanted.

Five was now helping Diego put the tapes mom had collected for them from the night of Vanya’s kidnapping. Vanya herself was sitting at the table watching them. They were just about to find mom to give them back to her when she stopped them.

“Could I… watch them?”

“Uhh sure, if you want,” Diego said, placing his box back on the table.

“I don’t want to trouble you, I just-- I haven’t seen them.”

“Okay,” Five put his own box on the table and started unpacking it.

“I don’t have to look at all of them, just the important ones.”

“Vanya it’s chill, you deserve to watch them,” Diego said, now fishing the small player they had used to watch them the first time.

“Do you want us to watch with you or alone?” Five asked, sitting down next to her.

“You guys can stay.”

Five and Diego quickly set up the tapes from the hallway outside the children's rooms. They watched through quietly until they blacked out for a second then came back again. Vanya only cocked her head slightly. 

They still hadn’t figured out how the group had managed to stop the cameras. They should only be able to be controlled from the room with all the monitors. It’s not like they had cut power to the house because everything else still worked. It was the strangest thing. 

After the first tape, Vanya asked to see the one from the hallways outside the camera room. Again it played through in its entirety only seeing Reginald come at the beginning and leave at the end. Vanya stared and it furrowed her brow, then asked to see it again. After watching it through again she asked to see the first one again. After she sat back and stared at the screen for a second with an unreadable expression on her face then turned to Diego and Five who were watching her.

“Did dad say anything, after I, you know?”

“Uh, no not really, he mostly just stayed in his office,” Diego answered.

“Huh.”

“What is it?” Five asked, he knew Vanya had figured something out that the rest of them hadn’t been able to get from the tapes.

“He was in the camera room when it happened.”

“What?” Diego asked.

“Dad, he was in the camera room when all the cameras cut out and was still there when they came back on.”

“How do you know that?” 

“The time stamps.”

“Shit.” Five swore. Why hadn’t they thought of looking at the timestamps?  
“But if dad was in the camera room that means…” Diego faded off.

“He could have turned off the cameras.” Vanya finished his thought.

“Shit.” Five swore again.

“But why?” Diego asked, they were all wondering the same question. Then Five was reminded of the conversation he overheard the night of the party.

“The night of the party, I heard dad talking to some guys, I didn’t get to see them because they were behind a door. He said something about securing an asset, that he would pay them once the asset was secure.” Five said, turning to look at Vanya.

“Fuck.” This time it was Diego that swore.

“Okay, okay, shit. We need to get everyone in here. We need to talk.” Vanya said, starting to stand up.

Vanya closed her eyes briefly, listening to the sounds in the house. She opened them again and told Diego to go get Allison and Luther, and Five to get Ben and Klaus from Klaus’ room. 

Five jumped to Klaus’s room, landing just inside the doorway. His two brothers were sitting on Klaus’ bed, Ben was reading while Klaus talked, mostly at him. They both looked up, startled at his arrival.

“Family meeting, kitchen, now.” Five told them then turned and started walking back downstairs.

“Oh, okay.” He heard Ben say behind him then the shuffling of the two of them scrambling up and following him. 

He led them back downstairs to the kitchen where Vanya was still sitting staring at the tape recorder. Five sat down next to her and motioned for the other two to sit as well. The final three siblings entered not long after and sat as well.

“What with the emergency meeting?” Allison asked as she sat down.

“We’ve found something, about the night I was taken or whatever,” Vanya said. “Dad was in the camera room when they came in.”

“So?” Klaus asked, not getting the implication.

“So he was the one who turned the cameras off,” Ben answered.

“No, he wouldn’t do that,” Luther said, looking desperately around at the rest of the siblings.

“There’s more,” Vanya said, then turned to Five.

“I overheard dad talking to people at the party. He said he would pay them to secure an asset, a strong asset.” He explained.

“Dad was doing all sorts of business deals at that party. That could have been about anything.” Luther tried to reason.

“And then the next night I go missing, seems like a hell of a coincidence.” Vanya shot back. “That room they put me in, it was built specifically for my powers. No one knows about them, except for dad.” 

Everyone sat in silence absorbing the new info, then all hell broke loose. Luther started saying that Reginald would never do such a thing, Diego was quick to start an argument with him, Allison defended Luther, Klaus jumped in and started just saying things. Ben, Vanya and Five were the only quiet ones. Ben looked like he was still absorbing the bomb that had been dropped. While Vanya looked serine, she simply sat and waited for them to tire themselves out.


	11. Chapter 11

It took a while for everyone to calm down. Once they had finished their arguments Vanya carefully restated the facts for them. The evidence was damning, Reginald had paid a bunch of men to kidnap Vanya. Slowly everyone realized what had happened.

Now they were angry. He had just come and tore apart their team with no regard for their safety or health. He was truly a monster. They had to leave, now. 

“Okay everyone go pack, we’re leaving,” Allison said, shooing everyone out of the room. “Make bags, just as much as you can carry. Not a lot of Umbrella shit.”

Everyone did not want to mess with the sharp note in her voice and got up and scattered to their rooms. Vanya dragged a backpack that was sitting at the back of her closet. She filled in with a couple pairs of jeans and t-shirts they had gotten from the outside world. She then slipped a couple pairs of pyjamas and thick wool socks that had an umbrella embroidered on the cuff. She added a couple books she particularly enjoyed. Then she went to the bathroom, she got her toothbrush and toothpaste, thinking at the last minute to grab some soap. She put on her sturdy running shoes and pulled on the sweater mom had made her last christmas. The final thing she grabbed was her violin from her room.

Vanya met up with the rest of her siblings in the hallway. They all wore similar grim expressions and carried bags. They quietly all turned and walked back downstairs, towards Reginald’s office. Vanya was mentally preparing herself for what she would say to her adopted father that made her life miserable for as long as she could remember. 

The group hesitated outside the office door. I was large and oak and never failed to instil fear in them. Vanya steeled her nerves and walked up to the door. With a deep breath, she turned the handle and entered, feeling her siblings behind her.

Reginald looked up at all of them as they entered. He opened his mouth to speak, probably to tell them off or ask what the hell they were doing. As soon as he caught the look in her eyes though he stopped. 

Vanya’s anger had been simmering since her discovery and had reached a boiling when she saw him. She could feel her powers welling up inside her, pulling every little sound from around her. She was sure her eyes were glowing brightly. There was a voice in her head telling her to kill him, rip him apart, make him hurt, the way he had hurt her and everyone she loved. Instead, she pushed her powers away and walked carefully up to him.

“We’re leaving dear father,” She spat at him. “Because we know what you did. You did something bad and now we’re taking your toys away from you. Cause that’s we are to you right? Toys that you can simply play with. Well, you don’t get to play with your toys when you’ve been bad. And you did a bad thing. So we’re leaving and never coming back. You try to send people after us, to find us we will kill them.” 

With that, she did as her father always did when he was finished talking. She turned swiftly and walked out of the room. Her sibling followed her out of the room, still glaring at Reginald as they left. 

They left through the back door, climbing over the fence around the courtyard to avoid the crowd in front of their house. They snuck quietly through the back allies until they made it a couple miles away from the house. They still didn’t feel far enough away but they felt a bit lighter. They all seemed to let out a collective sigh.

“We should go to the train station, get as far away as we can,” Ben said when they all looked around wondering where to go now.

They walked through the city, enjoying their newfound freedom. Klaus broke the tension by swinging an arm around Vanya’s shoulder and pulling her off down the street. He skipped along and she stumbled slightly letting out a laugh.

“You did it little sister! You got us away from that house. We’re free!” He laughed, wrapping her in a slightly awkward hug cause they were still walking.  
Vanya smiled at that, she was happy to get away herself and was pleased with herself that she managed to take her siblings with her. 

The group of teenagers didn’t attract too much attention on the busy streets and they managed to keep their heads down enough to not have anyone notice who they were. They managed to get to the train station without much effort.

Five and Allison went up to the counter to get the tickets. Five producing a large stack of cash from his bag. Vanya wanted to tell him off but she didn’t really care, Reginald had so much money that he wouldn’t even notice the amount that was gone and honestly they needed it to be able to properly start a life away from him.

Allison and Five got them tickets for a train to a small town a couple states away that was leaving in an hour and a half. They went to a small restaurant nearby for dinner as they waited it out.

Their train finally arrived and they all got on finding their seats. Five sat next to Vanya who had a window seat. After a few minutes, they started moving. It was only then that Vanya let out a breath. They were finally free of him. 

The others fell asleep shortly into the trip, exhausted after the day’s excitement. Vanya stayed awake staring out the window, watching the world pass by. For so long she had desperately wanted to be a part of the rest of the world, to be normal, not some freak kid superhero. Now she was getting her wish.


End file.
